Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes

Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.

I've always been very upfront about the way I write, and I've always used the tools humorists use, such as exaggeration.

I've spent my entire career being a satirist.

I think to simply make fun of something isn't particularly interesting. I try to not just do a parody of something or belittle something or disparage something.

Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.

I detest jokes - when somebody tells me one, I feel my IQ dropping; the brain cells start to disappear. But something is funny when the person delivering the line doesn't know it's funny or doesn't treat it as a joke. Maybe it comes from a place of truth, or it's a sort of rage against society.

Caricature is rough truth.

I'm accused of, and perhaps rightly so, of not being mean enough. I've been taken to task in many a book review; a good satirist has to, you know, has to kill.

Comedians are obsessed with justice and the truth.

It's an old Elizabethan idea. The fool is the only one who is allowed to make fun of the king because he is a fool. I can say whatever I want about anybody else because I'm just an idiot talking - I'm not insisting that I'm any smarter than anyone else. It's satire.

A little irreverence is always important to being a columnist. I try to do that.

In a satire, you need foolishness.

I'll see something, and I'll go, 'Oh, wow, that's interesting,' because really, comedy comes from the truth.

I have tremendous affection for New York and my life, but I'm a satirist at heart. And it's easy to satirize New York.

Out of the unconscious lips of babes and sucklings are we satirized.

I watched Master Class with Lorne Michaels on OWN. How can somebody produce a sketch show and talk for an hour and not say something even slightly amusing, or sarcastic, or ironic, or interesting, or informative? 'My mission as a producer is to encourage creativity.' Mission accomplished.

But you do have to learn, if you want to be a satirist, you can't be part of the party. Meaning, you can't go horseback riding with Jackie O in Central Park if you're going to make a joke about her that night.

By rights, satire is a lonely and introspective occupation, for nobody can describe a fool to the life without much patient self-inspection.

As a comedian, I think we all look for those areas where the truth diverts from what people are saying. That's why politics is such a rich area for us, because politicians make promises, and they don't keep them, and when we point out the difference, we get the laugh.

It's a dangerous game that comedy plays. Sometimes it tells you the truth; sometimes it delays it.

Humour is ahead of everything creatively. I think if things aren't humorous, they are just crap.

That's what I love about 'MADtv': If you exist, if you breathe, we will take you down.

Most humor comes from truth. In the end, if I can laugh about it, who cares?

Using humor as a wedge into different kinds of stories is my go-to. I think anything I do would have some sort of streak of humor in it.

Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet.